11.17.2013

Homeownership project #5: Refinishing the hardwoods - Before

I feel like a kid on Christmas Eve! Tomorrow is the beginning of the hardwood floor refinishing! Right now, the original hardwoods are covered by carpet in both guest bedrooms, as well as in a small hall, and the hardwoods in the formal living and dining aren't in the best shape. Our contractor will be ripping up all the carpet, sanding everything down, and will then refinish with urethane and a new stain. This is kind of dejavu - we actually refinished the hardwood floors in our townhome almost exactly a year ago. The difference is that refinishing those floors was FREE (thanks to State Farm) but I wasn't nearly excited about that process as I am about it this time around! We are going to switch up the color slightly so its a little bit darker (not TOO dark) and less orange-tinted. We also are going with a water based urethane because it is more durable than oil-based urethane, will yellow less over time than oil-based, and will also dry faster. Some people like oil-based because they believe it brings a warmer, richer feel to the wood floors. However, since we are going to go darker its a non-issue and with Stella running around, durability is our main concern!

Tyler and I have been working the past 3 weekends to empty all of the furniture and other items from the rooms. A big thanks to Collin for helping Tyler move the big stuff! We now have lots of furniture in our garage and our dining room table and chairs are in our family room, but, hey, its only temporary. Here are the before images (apologize for the iPhone quality photos):

Front room

Front guest room - don't worry, this room will be painted

Back guest bedroom - this room will also be painted

Hall

Once we get all the wood floors done, we'll get our painter, Agustin, to paint the new baseboards and walls for us. I'm thinking one room I might do a stark white, and the other one possibly grey (shocking, I know!) I'm not totally decided on how I want to decorate our two guest rooms yet, so I've been scouring Pinterest and Houzz for inspiration. So excited to start buying some new furniture! I'll post some pictures throughout the process this week. Its going to be an interesting week plastic-ed in the back half of our house! :)